Smart Touchscreen Key Activation Detection

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: determining, by a computing device, a location of a thumb contact detected at a touchscreen of the computing device, wherein the thumb contact detected at the touchscreen is not detected at a region of the touchscreen associated with a virtual space key; determining, by the computing device, a size of an area of the thumb contact; determining an orientation of the thumb contact; comparing the size of the area, the orientation, and the location to data associated with previous contacts detected at the touchscreen; determining, based on the comparing, that the thumb contact constitutes an intended activation of the virtual space key; and outputting, in response to the determining an electronic representation of a space character.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising detecting a texture of the thumb contact on the touchscreen, wherein the comparing further comprises comparing the texture to the data associated with previous contacts.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the detecting a texture of the thumb contact on the touchscreen comprises detecting thumbprint ridges associated with the thumb contact.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the outputting comprises outputting the electronic representation of the space character to a keyboard buffer.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the outputting comprises outputting the electronic representation of the space character to an application.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting an orientation comprises detecting a maximal diameter of the thumb contact on the touchscreen.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the detecting an orientation comprises determining an orientation of a line segment comprising the maximal diameter.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detecting the size of an area comprises determining a centroid of the thumb contact and a radius of the thumb contact detected at the touchscreen.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising assigning a likelihood score to each of the size of the area, the orientation, and the location.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the comparing comprises comparing using Bayesian statistics.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the comparing comprises using a maximum likelihood test.

12. A system comprising: a touchscreen configured to display a representation of a keyboard; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the touchscreen, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: compute information based at least in part on 1) a location, a size and an orientation of a thumb contact area detected at the touchscreen, wherein the thumb contact area does not include a portion of the touchscreen associated with a virtual space key, and 2) data associated with previous contacts detected at the touchscreen; determine, based on the information, that the thumb contact constitutes an intended activation of the virtual space key; and output an electronic representation of a space character.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to detect one of: a texture of the thumb contact area detected at the touchscreen; and thumbprint ridges of the thumb contact area detected at the touchscreen.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to output the electronic representation of the space character to a keyboard buffer.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to detect a maximal diameter of the thumb contact area detected at the touch screen.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to detect an orientation of a line segment comprising a maximal diameter of the thumb contact area on the touchscreen.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to detect a centroid and a radius of the thumb contact area detected at the touchscreen.

18. The system of claim 12 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to assign a likelihood score to each of the size of the area, the orientation, and the location.

19. The system of claim 12 , wherein the information comprises a probability computed using Bayesian statistics.

20. The system of claim 12 , wherein the information comprises an output of a maximum likelihood test.

21. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to: determine a location of a thumb contact detected at a touchscreen of a computing device, wherein the thumb contact detected at the touchscreen is not detected at a region of the touchscreen associated with a virtual space key; determine a size of an area of the thumb contact; determine an orientation of the thumb contact; calculate comparison information based at least in part on a comparison of the size of the area, the orientation, and the location to data associated with one or more previous contacts detected at the touchscreen; determine, based on the comparison information, that the thumb contact constitutes an intended activation of the virtual space key; and output an electronic representation of a space character.